Flood-ravaged Pakistan now hit with malnutrition

Updated
January 27, 2011 09:05:00

UNICEF worries that malnutrition in parts of Pakistan affected by last year's floods is worse than it is in Sub Saharan Africa. In some areas of the country, nearly a quarter of children are malnourished. Pakistan's volatile political situation is making the problem more difficult to solve.

PETER CAVE: UNICEF and NGOs working in Pakistan say that malnutrition in parts of the country affected by last year's devastating floods is worse than it is in Sub Saharan Africa.

The monsoon floods were the most damaging in 80 years and at least 170,000 people remain in relief camps dependent on foreign aid.

There are indications however that a major crisis was developing even before floodwaters which swept from the north to the south of the country and destroyed 14 per cent of its farmlands.

I spoke to the ABC's South Asia correspondent Sally Sara in Kabul and I asked her how bad it looked.

SALLY SARA: The assessments that have been done by UNICEF create a picture of a very worrying situation in part for Sindh province.

Sindh province in the south of Pakistan was worst hit by the floods in August last year. This survey of malnutrition has found that in some parts of Sindh province the malnutrition rates for children are up to 23 per cent.

To give you an idea of where that sits, the World Health Organization has a threshold of 15 per cent malnutrition for it to be at emergency levels. So by the World Health Organization standards in some parts of Sindh province the situation is already beyond what it would consider an emergency.

PETER CAVE: So are they calling for a massive aid operation?

SALLY SARA: Well the message from UNICEF and from Oxfam is that this disaster isn't over; that the consequences are continuing.

But it is a very complex picture, the same as what we saw on the ground during the floods in August. And that is it's unclear whether some of these malnutrition rates are from the flooding itself or whether the flooding has simply haemorrhaged this issue into public view.

These malnutrition rates are worse than some countries in crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, places like Chad and Niger.

But regardless these aid agencies are saying that they have grave concerns for hundreds of thousands of children in this particular part of Pakistan.

PETER CAVE: Is the suggestion one of ongoing misery or is there a suggestion that the country is moving towards an East Africa style crisis?

SALLY SARA: Well again this disaster has really brought into public view levels of hunger that people didn't really understand existed in this particular part of Pakistan.

And the next few months will give some more indication about whether this is a disaster issue or whether this is an underlying problem of people who don't have the resources to keep themselves alive.

And they're relying on a government which is dealing with its own internal political crises, with an insurgency and terrorism. There's just been twin suicide bombings in the past 36 hours.

So a very difficult situation for these people who are at risk in this part of the country.